ARRL June VHF Contest - 2023
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: Single Op-All Modes LP
QTH: EN41 IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 486 206
2: 74 48
222: 15 12
432: 16 11
903: 4 4
1.2: 6 6
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 601 287 Total Score = 187,124
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
Wow that was painful. Saturday was January slow all day and mostly FT8 plodding
at low rates on 6M. Es bubbles kept teasing but nothing really solid or
sustained. 2M and above Qs were not only scarce but conditions seems way below
normal especially on 222. I heard but missed AC0RA/R on 432 in two usually easy
grids. This resulted in a really bad hour at 2200 while I searched for my only
UHF wattmeter and traced the problem to very low transverter power output that
only drove the brick to maybe 10W instead of 100. I got reports later of
suddenly getting louder like a relay was hanging. Guess my 90s vintage
transverters are showing their age and running out of steam. Kinda like the
1951 vintage OP.
The evening MSK totals were pretty thin too as there was not a lot of folks on
PJ to work. I went to sleep for a couple hours pretty disheartened. Sunday
morning was not much better and my sked with K0AWU in EN35 (400 miles) had about
the worst conditions we have encountered. We usually work 6 and 2M on CW but
had to resort to Q65 right away and totally blanked on 222 and 432. Bill runs
higher power and never heard me while I barely decoded him for only a few frames
on 222. 6M was all FT8 except a brief flurry around 1300Z, and I didn’t hear
much on 2 on any mode. It was like a RF absorbing blanket had been thrown on my
QTH. I mostly didn’t bother reaching out to anyone to run bands since it was
so bad.
Finally around 1800 6M opened to the Southeast on analog but there seemed few
working it. Even that flurry died off pretty quickly and it was back to droning
on digital. I’d all but psyched myself out and given up when it finally
ripped open strong at 2200 with decent rates for the next 2 hours. Saved my
contest! Mostly SE with some down to TX and OK at the same time but with a
smattering of western grids and sudden but all too short burst to the NE. I saw
some FL stations come across my FT8 screen on 2M Es but nothing on the SSB
waterfall and none called me back. There was analog on the waterfall for the
rest of the contest but the rates dropped way off as I saturated FL and the SE,
so I kept going to FT4 and picking mults out to California on FT4 and FT8.
Definitely a lot more FT4 while it was open than I usually see.
After dark I reached out to a few stations to run higher bands and some good
ones went into the log. However nobody called me to initiate a band run all
contest except Zack W9SZ and he only had the bottom 4 this time out. My 2 and 3
GHZ are still broken but I only had maybe 2 opportunities to try those anyway.
And many I reached out to never called or texted back. After the contest FT8
was still hammering away and I got on 6M SSB with W9RM in DM59 Colorado and
Wyatt AC0RA/R in EN32 Iowa to compare notes. The only analog signals on the
band except for a few stations in the SW that called in to say hi. They both
killed it and left me feeling depressed over my efforts. I’m still pretty
disappointed.
73 de Bob2
Contest: ARRLVHFJUN
Band Mode QSOs Pts Grd Pt/Q
50 FT4 47 47 20 1.0
50 FT8 159 159 107 1.0
50 MSK1 7 7 4 1.0
50 Q65 1 1 1 1.0
50 USB 272 272 74 1.0
144 FT8 49 49 31 1.0
144 MSK1 7 7 6 1.0
144 Q65 1 1 1 1.0
144 USB 17 17 10 1.0
222 CW 2 4 2 2.0
222 FT8 1 2 1 2.0
222 USB 12 24 9 2.0
420 CW 3 6 2 2.0
420 FT8 1 2 1 2.0
420 USB 12 24 8 2.0
902 CW 4 12 4 3.0
1240 CW 5 15 5 3.0
1240 USB 1 3 1 3.0
Total Both 601 652 287 1.1
Score: 187,124
1 Mult = 2.1 Q's
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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